Hospitals look abroad in bid to beat London nurse shortage

Hospitals are recruiting overseas to fill nursing shortages on London wards.

Dozens of nurses have been hired from Spain, Italy and Portugal and health bosses are looking to recruit more.

More than one in four London trusts is looking abroad, according to an estimate from the Royal College of Nursing London.

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust has taken on 44 nurses from the EU.The Princess Royal University Hospital, which wants to hire 250 nurses, said it will look abroad if it cannot find enough nurses in the UK.

It comes amid a national struggle to staff NHS wards and with nurse vacancy rates in London twice the national average. This month, the health watchdog issued guidance on safe nursing levels. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence warned that patients are at risk of harm if a nurse has to care for more than eight people on a ward during the day.

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust plans to boost nursing staff by more than 200 over the next three years.

A recruitment team travelled to Portugal, Italy and Spain where the economic downturn means there is a surplus of good nursing staff. All the staff hired had telephone interviews followed by English and maths tests before a formal interview process. A spokeswoman for the PRUH in Bromley said: “We will look in the UK first and if we can’t fill the vacancies then that’s when we will have to go abroad.”

The PRUH is run by King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which took on 96 nurses from the Philippines last year. The RCN London said it welcomed the overseas recruitment drive. Nora Flanagan, operational manager, said: “Nursing directors in London’s NHS have been working hard to boost nurse numbers, but in some areas we are seeing a shortage of available, suitably qualified nurses to take vacant posts. London’s NHS has relied on a large number of overseas staff and currently a number of hospitals are recruiting nurses from Spain, Italy, Portugal and the Philippines.”

The number of EU nurses employed overall by the NHS has increased by more than 50 per cent in a year. Latest figures show that 5,217 Europeans were registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council over the last year. This compares with just under 3,500 the year before.

I always wanted to work in London

Sara Pereira came from Portugal to work at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich.

The staff nurse, left, said she had “always wanted to live in London” and in a multi-cultural area. She said: “I am very excited about working at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich.

“One of the Trust values which was very important to me was [that] it puts patients first.”